Among the many problems associated with the utilization of radioactive materials is the disposal of the waste material. The prior techniques for such disposal included the encapsulation of the waste in a solid and the burial of that solid in designated sites. Both concrete and urea/formaldehyde resins have been so used. More recently it has been proposed that such wastes in solid form, aqueous solutions or slurries can be dispersed in unsaturated polyesters or vinyl ester resins and converted to a solid with droplets of the liquid dispersed therein.
Each of the prior techniques are useful with the aqueous wastes resulting from nuclear power plant operation. However, those techniques have severe shortcomings when attempts are made to use them with the radioactive organic solvent wastes from nuclear power plants and also those wastes emanating from chemical and medical laboratories. Such wastes are sometimes water soluble and may also be soluble in the resin system or may be a solvent for the resin system or parts thereof. Typical of such wastes are acetone rinses from tracer studies.
The prior techniques for encapsulating liquid radioactive wastes involved forming a waste in resin emulsion followed by curing the resin. When the waste is soluble in the resin or is a solvent therefor, formation of the emulsion may be precluded and/or the waste may cause a retardation of the time to gel the system and consequently for the system to cure. Also, such soluble wastes can adversely affect the physical properties of the cured product. These undesirable effects cannot be abided with the strict regulations surrounding radioactive waste disposal.